


Positive Charges

by koppywriting



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: M/M, best bros, this was sort of a joke but now I ship it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-05-11
Updated: 2012-05-11
Packaged: 2017-11-05 04:42:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/402551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/koppywriting/pseuds/koppywriting
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thor cares about his teammates. He takes it upon himself to care for them in the aftermath of their battles. Tony baffles Thor, with his coldness, his distance. Thor simplifies matters for all parties.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Positive Charges

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cryptonomicon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cryptonomicon/gifts).



> A/N: This is a drabble from last semester, for cryptonomicon, who was stressed out than and is stressed out now. Considering that she's the Tony to my Thor (and never forever alone), I thought I should dedicate this sugar coated drabble properly.

It was…nice, Tony decided, to have someone who cared if you lived or died. Annoying, at times, but nice.

Steve cared, of course. The soldier in him wouldn’t let him forget for a moment that people’s lives hung in the balance of his every decision. Losing Bucky had made him hyperaware of the dangers of war. It had taken Tony a long time, perhaps too long for Steve, for him to truly understand how his renegade disobedience hurt the team leader. Of course, getting him to admit that his newfound team spirit was a direct result of Steve’s emotional wellbeing would be like pulling teeth.  
Bruce cared as well, although Hulk didn’t. Maybe because of the green rage monster’s intense disinterest, Bruce cared more than just about anybody. And he cared about everybody. Tony, who bared survived his daily life by caring about even one somebody a week did not understand how the scientist had yet to crack and shatter beneath the pressure.

Clint and Natasha cared in terms of team dynamics, but emotionally Tony acknowledged that to them, he is a non-entity. Their cares beyond the teams overall strengths and weaknesses lie completely with one another and, in Tony’s world, that is exactly as it should be.

Thor, on the other hand, cares what happens to the Avengers individually and specifically. The warrior prince burned into the core of his person remembers exultation and tragedy in the aftermath of a battle, and he seeks each Avenger out in the hours and days after a conflict simply to talk to them, to check on them.

He understands Steve’s pain, the tragedy of being a commander. He understands Bruce’s worries, the weight of being monstrous. He understands Clint and Natasha’s concerns, the power of fighting side by side with a lover.

Tony baffles Thor. 

He behaves so very much like Loki, yet so very differently as well. And when Thor goes to him in an attempt to understand, to fathom what makes Tony Stark tick, he grumbles and blushes but does not push him away. He lets Thor sit and ask him questions and glows at the opportunity to show off all that he has learned in his years of amassing knowledge.

Stark tick, he grumbles and blushes but does not push him away. He lets Thor sit and ask him questions and glows at the opportunity to show off all that he has learned in his years of amassing knowledge.

Yes, Tony Stark is at turns very much like his brother indeed, yet he is very much not as well. He has Loki’s aloof cunning, but little of his bite. He shares Loki’s love of knowledge, but none of his trickery and magic. And he loves Thor the way Loki might have is he had stopped hating long enough to appreciate all his brother was to him.  
This, in turn, baffles Tony.

He’s not quite sure where their relationship started, although when he really tries, Thor restarting his heart comes to mind time and time again. Only Thor would try, and succeed, in giving Iron Man CPR while he was still in his suit. The lighting that lives just under Thor’s skin kicked into his Arc Reactor with all the savage cantankerousness of a mule and the first thing Tony saw when his vision came back was the Thunderer’s face before his and Thor’s hand on his chest, helping the crippled muscles find its rhythm.

In that dying and resurrection, he thinks, the two of them formed some kind of bond. Bonds are not a strong suit of Tony’s. He understands loyalty and responsibility, but barring the existence of those two vital ingredients, he has no idea while people feel so powerfully for one another. So he muddles along as best he can, testing the water as he always has: by diving in.

The changes confuse Thor not at all. He knows his own heart better than any other and he knows that what he felt for Loki was nothing like what he feels for Tony stark. The genius embodies some of the traits he found most fascinating and praiseworthy in his younger brother, but a thousand and one little inconveniences have kept him from ever feeling any closeness with his brother. So many variables could have changed who they are and where they were, but those things did not happen and the train of events that led him to sit beside Tony Stark this night atop Stark Tower did.

So Tony and Thor sit there, side by side and lightly presses together, watching the sun set over the artificial horizon, hundreds of steel towers much like the one they themselves sit upon lit up by the sun’s descent. Thor doesn’t ask what makes Tony fidgety because he knows the Man of Iron can keep no secret for longer than his patience and Tony sits and fidgets and doesn’t ask ‘why me?’ even though he wants nothing more and the silence drags on, just shy of relaxed but undeniably comfortable because Tony is never more comfortable than when he is left to his own thoughts and Thor’s immense presence belies his ability to let his companion have his quiet contemplation.

Finally, Tony leans his head over to rest it on Thor’s shoulder and says, “You could have had anyone.”

“No,” Thor replies where Tony expected only silence, “Love does not work like that.”


End file.
